Have you seen a sadder burger?

We had taken a long walk to Rhodes and were starving. Ribs and Burgers had been on my list of places to try for a long while, but some how – yes I know I’ve been living under a rock – I completely forgot that it was Good Friday, and that just about everywhere was closed for the holiday.

But we wanted ribs, and we wanted burgers, and WE WANTED IT NOWWWWWW.

So we decided to try Chambers Fine Coffee and Wine Bar, which also had ribs and burgers on the menu.

The interior was clean and modern, and seemed like a fun little place to dine at. The weather was beautiful, so the tables and chairs that were set up on the side walk were also great options. There was a selection of pastry and breads very nicely laid out, and it gave me a good feeling about the place.

The exterior of the eatery

Well sometimes, feelings are not meant to be trusted. We were there for lunch, so we ordered the beef burger ($22) and the beef ribs ($22). The price was a bit steep for a burger, in my opinion, but we really had a hankering for burgers so we went ahead with it. Boy, were we in for a shock.

A very naked burger. Wafer thin cheese melted on to the top bun, and a lone patty.

The burger came, a lone patty in a bun. We first looked for the cheese, and found a wafer-thin layer melted onto the top half of the brioche bun. The burger patty had just enough flavour for a patty, but there was really nothing else to help it along. No onions, no sauce, no nothing. WHERE IS THE REST OF MY BURGER???

But we picked it up anyway and tried to give it a chance.

Halfway through the burger, the ribs arrived.

Beef short ribs, tender, but with barely a drizzle of barbecue sauce. Also, very blond fries.

The ribs were tender, but pretty naked except for a thin squeeze of barbecue sauce, rather than the crusty glaze that I had been expecting, you know, because it’s RIBS.

But the cherry on top of the bad bad icing was the chips. CHIPS that are meant to be heavenly, crisp hot morsels of salted potato at its best. Instead, what we got was pallid, pale, flaccid, and limp bits of what looked like boiled potato. Boiled strips of potato that should’ve been so satisfying. Add to that a blah salad on the side, and you’ve got two very frustrated diners. And the fries were consistent across the burger AND the ribs. so it wasn’t a ‘bad batch’.

It also didn’t help when we heard the table next to us making similar complaining noises.

To top it all off, we had a bucket holding our cutlery and serviettes. We had two sets given to us – one each. We had kept one of the serviettes in the bucket because it was a windy day, together with one of the cutlery sets – we were eating the burger with our hands, but were planning to use the remaining set to try the salad with. In the middle of this shocking lunch, the remaining cutlery set and serviette was just taken from our table, and deposited at another one. Without any warning!!!!! So we were left to share the one remaining serviette between our two dirty hands.

Seriously????

We did plan to order coffee at the end of the meal to take with us, but after the experience, we gave up and just walked away. Needless to say, this is not something I’d pay to go through again.

No.

Chambers Fine Coffee & Wine Bar
02 8096 5592
10/7 Rider Blvd
Rhodes, NSW 2138

Chambers Fine Coffee & Wine Bar on Urbanspoon

8 Comments

  1. Trent @ Food Assault April 23, 2014 at 7:07 am

    OMG……I was hoping you were going to say the burger tasted great and then when I saw the ribs I started laughing.

    What a pathetic looking burger you got……and then the ribs look like something out of a horror movie ��

    Sorry you had such a bad experience, the name and location is noted…….to avoid ��

    Reply
  2. Vivian - vxdollface April 23, 2014 at 1:38 pm

    mega upsetting because i walk past all the time and the place looks really nicely fitted out! i saw your instagram and it has deterred me from going to try it 🙁 very upsetting cause i had high hopes for this place! my bro went for breakfast and said the eggs benedict was mediocre and didn’t justify the high price

    Reply
  3. missklicious April 24, 2014 at 2:13 am

    What a shame, the chips don’t even look like they are cooked!

    Reply
  4. Lawrence @ FightTheCraving April 24, 2014 at 3:54 am

    You really should’ve complained, I don’t think I would have left without some compensation for that service and food!

    Reply
  5. Annie April 24, 2014 at 9:10 am

    $22 for that burger? far out…:(

    Reply
  6. Christine @ Cooking Crusade April 25, 2014 at 7:12 am

    That is awful for $22! I mean for that price I would expect to get the best burger of my life haha. Very disappointing!!

    Reply
    1. Tammi Kwok May 1, 2014 at 12:32 am

      I know hey! I think even the best burger of my life didn’t cost $22

      Reply
  7. Amy zhong April 30, 2014 at 1:44 am

    i would call that zero effort for running a business!

    Reply

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